Popular Piety The Story of a Picture Shiite Depictions of

PIERRE CENTLIVRES Shiite Muslims in have a very lively In spite of the relative prohibition of graphic eyes and a delicate face, evoking the AND MICHELINE tradition of depicting members of the representation of living beings, especially mannerism of the late Renaissance, es- CENTLIVRES-DEMONT ’s family and the Prophet Mu- members of the Prophet’s family,1 as expressed pecially the male adolescents painted hammad himself. Since the end of the by religious authorities in the Islamic world, by Caravaggio, for instance, the Young nineties, popular selling “posters” are colourful paper prints showing , son-in- Boy Carrying a Fruit Basket (Roma, printed in Iran showing the Prophet law of Muhammad, and his sons Hassan and Borghese Gallery) or the Saint John the Muhammad as a beautiful young man, Hussayn, even the Prophet himself, are not rare Baptist (Capitole Museum); same velvet with a turban, a tunic slipped from the in contemporary Iran. In this article the authors softness of the cheeks, same half-open shoulder and a languorous expres- tell the story of how a picture of a Tunesian mouth, same caressing look. Though sion.3 The Iranian religious “posters” boy became the model for popular selling there are several variants of the por- of today are printed by modern proc- posters depicting the Prophet Muhammad trait, they all represent the same youth- esses, which allow countless variations as a beautiful young man.2 ful face, generally identified by the through the use of paintings, photo- inscription “Muhammad, Allah’s mes- graphs, drawings, or a collage of various images and techniques. Even senger” or by a more precise caption referring to an episode of the life if the technique is modern, the representation remains traditional: the of the Prophet and to the supposed origin of the image. We will come background is plain-coloured, and the colours are juxtaposed. The im- back to that later on. ages of these venerated persons are depicted with stereotyped fea- tures, postures, and attributes that make their identification easier, Surprising discovery Ali”s double pointed sword for instance.4 By chance, in 2004 we were able to identify the origin of the Iranian But the portrait in question today is significantly different from the poster image when visiting in Paris an exhibition dedicated to the pho- previous images: it shows a very attractive adolescent, with tender tographers Lehnert & Landrock. It was a photograph made by Lehnert in Tunis, probably between 1904 and 1906, and printed and circulated Picture 1. as a postcard in the early twenties. “Mohamed”, Originating from Bohemia, Rudolf Franz Lehnert (1878-1948), associ- postcard ated with the German Ernst Heinrich Landrock (1878-1966), settled in number 106, Tunis in 1904, the former as photographer, the latter as manager and by Lehnert publisher. Having sojourned in Tunisia the previous year, Lehnert had and Landrock. been sensitive to the charm of its landscapes and its habitants. The firm 14 x 8,9 cm (L&L) specialized in picturesque views of Tunis, later of Cairo and after the first World War, and in scenes corresponding to an exotic-colo- nial aesthetic. L&L produced thousands of photographs and postcards of Tunisia, Egypt, and other Near-Eastern countries. Lehnert, who studied at the Institute of Graphic in Vienna, had ties with the pictorialist movement, which considered photography as a work of . Lehnert’s photographs show not only the desert, rolling sand dunes, picturesque markets, and indigenous areas of old Tunis, but also the prepubescent, as pubescent girls and young boys, half un- dressed, posing against the “oriental scenery” of his old Tunisian palace. With their graceful look of an age that hesitates between childhood and adolescence, between feminine and masculine, these boys and girls as pictured by Lehnert corresponded to the tastes of a European clien- tele, sensitive to Oriental phantasms and seductions. The publication in 1902 of L’immoraliste of André Gide is more than a coincidence.5 Lehnert has certainly made use of the register of exoticism and of its phantasms, but with great talent. His images were published in ar- gentic prints, in heliogravure, in four-colour process, or hand-painted. Most of the postcards were printed in Germany from 1920 on and dis- tributed from Cairo.

Matching prints and texts No doubt that the sepia postcard, number 106 following the numera- tion of L&L (picture 1) served as model to the Iranian posters. There are traces of sepia visible on some of the Iranian posters. Moreover, the postcard number 106 alone is entitled “Mohamed,” which no doubt was one of the reasons why this one was chosen as the prototype for the Iranian portraits. Clearly, the different variants of the Iranian posters all

COLLECTION P. AND M. CENTLIVRES stem from the single postcard number 106; they are all its unmistak-

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able reproduction with the first editions of the Iranian posters being the Picture 2. most similar to the postcard. Unwittingly, Lehnert is at the origin of a Portrait of kind of mystification, which based on the use, by the Iranian publishers, the young of an ambiguous and colonial portrait that had been given the name of Muhammad. Mohamed. Poster printed The question of the correspondence between the traditional descrip- in . tions of the Prophet, the written or oral Traditions, and the image of the 49,5 x 34,5 cm. young Tunisian boy is open. This postcard shows the portrait of a smil- Bought in ing adolescent, with parted lips, a turbaned head, and a jasmine flower Tehran, over the ear. The same young boy appears in other postcards coloured November or sepia, in slightly different poses, and with different names: Ahmed, 1998. Young Arab, Young Arab nomad…. We have not been able to discover the path that lead from the postcard printed in the twenties, to Tehran and Qom where the post- ers have been published since the beginning of the nineties. But we were intrigued by the question of which idea or evidence could have suggested to the Iranian publishers a shared identity between the Prophet of in his young age and the picture of the Tunisian ado- lescent? Already before the First World War, the photograph of “Mohamed” was reproduced, for instance in The National Geographic Magazine of January 1914, illustrating an article entitled “Here and There in North- ern Africa,” with the caption “An Arab and his Flower.” In the twenties, the Tunisian postcards of L&L were very popular among the French troops in North Africa and the Levant. Recently, in the eighties and nineties, several books including the portrait of the young adolescent were published, but always with other designations than “Mohamed.” The present Iranian versions, touched up, keep something of the seduc- tiveness of the adolescent, but soften his excessively sensual expression, while trying to reconcile the sacred character of the Prophet to the dis- turbing beauty of the young man. The left shoulder is lightly covered by a drape, the mouth and gaze have been modified. On several posters, the COLLECTION P. AND M. CENTLIVRES flowers on the ear are fused with the folds of the turban. By many ways, the Iranian artists tend to erase the feminine tones of the photography of Notes Lehnert or what gives the young man a too sensual a character. 1. Concerning this prohibition, see, among The caption on one of the poster images (picture 2) specifies: “Bless- many others, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, The Lawful ed portrait of the venerated Muhammad, at the age of eighteen during The Iranian publishers and The Prohibited in Islam (Beyrouth, 1984). his journey from to Damascus 6 when accompanying his vener- 2. This article is a revised and summarized ated uncle on a trade expedition. Portrait due to the paintbrush of a version of: Pierre Centlivres et Micheline Christian priest; the original painting is at present in a ‘Muze-i Rum’.”7 In have chosen a model Centlivres-Demont: “Une étrange rencontre: another poster, the designer has touched up the face by adding dim- la photographie orientaliste de Lehnert et ples on the chin of the adolescent; the green-striped turban is held by Landrock et l’image iranienne du prophète a green and golden braid. In a poster, dated 2001-2002, lines draw rays of Prophet Muhammad ,” in Études photographiques illuminating the head of the future Prophet. The mountainous back- (Paris), no. 17 (2005): 4-15. ground of another print refers to a later event, when, during the flight 3. Oleg Grabar and Mika Natif, “The Story of from Mecca, Muhammad took refuge in a cave, on whose entrance God representing an ideal Portraits of the Prophet Muhammad,” Studia ordered a spider to spin a web so as to hide the Prophet from his pur- Islamica (Paris), no. 96 (2003): 35 and Silvia suers. Naef, Y a-t-il une “question de l’image” en of youth, beauty, islam? (Paris: Téraèdre, 2004), 29. Christian origins? 4. Pierre Centlivres et Micheline Centlivres- As previously noted, an inscription attributes the work to a Christian Demont, Imageries populaires en islam origin, and not to an Islamic one, which exculpates the Muslims from and harmony. (Genève : Éditions Georg, 1997). the non-observance of the image prohibition and from the sacrilege of 5. Michel Mégnin, “André Gide, Rudolf Lehnert representing the Prophet. This attribution also asserts the recognition et la poésie arabe. Images et réalité de la by the Christians of the sacred character of Muhammad, already in the pédérastie en terre d’Islam,” Bulletin des Amis Prophet’s early years.8 It speaks of a Christian priest, which would ap- rated teeth, and lightly wavy hair. These are also the d’André Gide 33 no. 146 (April 2005): 153- pear to be the Nestorian or Orthodox priest who, according to features of the adolescent on the Iranian posters as 178. a story going back to the ninth-tenth century, should have recognized well as of many others. It is the portrait of a portrait, 6. Twelve years old, following the most the “Prophet-to-be” by a sign—a mark of prophethood between his a representation of a representation. Thus the Irani- frequent Tradition. shoulders—during his sojourn in Syria. The future Prophet should have an publishers have chosen a model of the Prophet 7. Rum designates a city of the Christian world, said : “When I look at the heaven and the stars, I see myself above the Muhammad representing an ideal of youth, beauty, Roma, as well as Constantinople in the past. stars,” from where the inspiration for the background of some variants and harmony. 8. See A. Abel, “Bahîrah,” in Encyclopaedia of showing the vault spangled with stars. Islam, 2nd. ed. The textual tradition does not say anything on Bahira being a painter. 9. Barry, Figurative Art in Medieval Islam The supposed Christian origin of the portrait refers, perhaps, to another and the Riddle of Bihzâd of Herât (1465–1535) story according to which the Emperor of Byzantium (610-641) (Paris: Flammarion, 2004), 245. would have shown to a delegation of Muhammad’s companions com- ing from Mecca the portraits of all the including Muhammad, the last of all prophets.9 Even though we have no physical description of Muhammad as an ado- Pierre Centlivres, Professor Emeritus of the University of Neuchâtel and Micheline Centlivres- lescent, there exist descriptions of his features as an adult, transmitted by Demont, both anthropologists, are the authors of Imageries populaires en islam (Genève: several sources: he was said to have a white complexion, slightly blushed, Georg, 1997), and of “Une présence absente: symboles et représentations populaires du black eyes, smooth cheeks, bushy eyebrows in a shapely curve, well sepa- Prophète Mahomet,” in Derriere l’image (Neuchâtel: Musée d’ethnographie, 1998), 139–170.

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